All inquires and manuscripts will be e-mailed to the editor of EJSE -- jcannon@unr.edu

US mail address is: John R. Cannon, College of Education/282, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557-0214

Since EJSE is a completely electronic venture, only manuscripts submitted to the editor electronically will be accepted for review. If the manuscript includes data tables of some kind, please format the tables in TABLE FORMAT via your word processor (example: Word). Please check with the editor if questions arise.

The scope of EJSE is limited to science education issues K-16. Manuscripts that address issues such as, but not limited to, science curriculum, curriculum integration, teacher preparation, science education research, or implementation of science curricula would be acceptable for review. EJSE is designed to somewhat fluid in scope concerning science education. Therefore, please contact the editor with any manuscript ideas for suitability.

NEW REQUIREMENT -- As of March 24, 2003, in an effort to streamline and standardize the publications of the EJSE, the following new guidelines will take place immediately:

1. The EJSE will no longer publish manuscripts in HTML format, unless previous arrangements have been made with the publishers. Previous arrangements include discussions with the publishers explaining the special need of the manuscript being published in HTML. All future issues of the EJSE will be published in PDF.
2. All revised and final copies of manuscripts, accepted for publication, will need to be submitted in camera-ready format. Camera-ready is defined as manuscripts that can be converted into PDF without any additional editing or formatting by the publishers of the EJSE.

3. Two electronic versions of the manuscript need to be submitted. One version that models after traditional manuscript submissions with title page, author affliation, etc. The other version must be formatted as follows:

The following header and footer should be cut from this page and pasted in the manuscript:

BEFORE THE TITLE OF THE MANUSCRIPT, INSERT:

EJSE Reviewers:
Thank you for your time with the attached manuscript. Comments should be
-formative- in nature and designed to -strengthen- the manuscript where
necessary. Please make your review comments in CAPS right in the document,
such as:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The survey clearly demonstrates that people in the area believe
that the sky is, indeed, falling.(THE SURVEY USED IN THE STUDY
APPEARS INAPPROPRIATE; YOU MIGHT TRY "CANNONS SKY SURVEY" INSTEAD AS IT
SEEMS TO BETTER MEASURE SKY FALLING). Richardson's (1923) (THIS RESEARCH
SEEMS DATED -- ARE THERE MORE CURRENT REFERENCES?) findings are congruent
with this research."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In line with the EJSE's review guidelines, we try to honor a 14 day
review period for submissions. Please return this manuscript via e-mail
with your embedded comments to the managing editor in 14 days of receipt.
***********************************************************************
*PLEASE KEEP AN ELECTRONIC COPY OF THIS REVIEW FOR QUESTIONS IF NEEDED*
***********************************************************************

Manuscript here,
with no title page or
author affiliation,
including references
and appendices at the end.
 

AFTER THE LAST PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT, INSERT:

Please return this evaluation form imbedded at the bottom of the
attached document. Evaluate and rate (5=EXCELLENT - 1=POOR) the paper for the
following:
_____ Manuscript focuses on issues related to science/science teacher
education.
_____ Manuscript is timely?
_____ Manuscript is significant?
_____ Manuscript is clear, logical, and concise?
_____ Manuscript is accurate in terms of content?
_____ Manuscript is appropriate in length?
_____ Manuscript has an adequate lit. review?
_____ Manuscript reflects appropriate design and methodology?
_____ Manuscript's conclusions are based on results?
_____ Overall rating?
=======================================================================
_____ Accept for publication as submitted
_____ Accept with revisions
_____ Reject, but ask to resubmit after revisions
_____ Reject

Reviewer's comments:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AS ALWAYS - THANKS FOR MAKING THE EJSE A SUCCESS!!!
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2. Separate from the manuscript, included in the submission e-mail, along with the 2 versions of the manuscript, include the full title and abstract of the manuscript that can easily be cut and pasted into an e-mail to the EJSE Review Board. No author information should be included along with the title and abstract.

For example:

How to get published the Electronic Journal of Science Education

This article deals with the nuts and bolts of getting published in the EJSE. Readers will find a vast amount of very important information aimed at helping the non-electronically published author. Not to brag, but this is probably one of the best collections on e-publishing currently available. Etc., etc., etc.

3. All tables and figures must be placed within the text where appropriate, not appended to the end of the manuscript. Please do not use "Insert Table X about here" in the manuscript.

Manuscripts not formatted according to the above guidelines will be directly returned to the lead author and not considered for review until properly formatted.

If the manuscript includes data tables of some kind, please format the tables in TABLE FORMAT via your word processor (example: MicroSoft Word). Special table formats (within word processing programs) can often be translated successfully into HTML also. Please check with the editor if questions arise.

HMTL manuscripts are accepted from the author(s) "as is", meaning no major HTML formatting changes will be done to the manuscript. EJSE will make every attempt to assure that the author(s) manuscript format is retained as submitted.

The style manual followed for publication in EJSE is the fifth edition Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(APA, 2001, July). The electronic nature of EJSE requires some minor formatting modifications to the APA style. They are:
 

a. No running heads/page numbers are required.

b. Pay close attention on how your word processor formats tables.

If your word processor does not form tables, use the following as an example:

Table 1

Title of the table

________________________________________________________________________

n        Mean      Median    Mode    SD

________________________________________________________________________

Group 1   24        3.45      33     .56

Group 2    7        3.2       22     .77

________________________________________________________________________

c. Graphics included in your manuscript should be either in .gif or .jpg formats. Please check with the editor if you wish to submit any other type of graphic for conversion suitability.

d. For any other style problems, match the APA style manual as close as possible.

Inquiry & The Learning Cycle:
The Learning Cycle originally credited to Karplus and Thier (1967), who authored A New Look at Elementary School Science, has been used in science education from its conception. Probably one of the earliest and foremost supporters of the Learning Cycle was the SCIS (Science Curriculum Improvement Study) program which adapted it and included it in its science curriculum. Although there are several "E" versions (e.g. 3-E, 4-E, 5-E, and other modifications) the basic premise is that children have an experience with the phenomena in the learning of the concept / topic. In other words, the Learning Cycle applied the inquiry approach to teaching into a series of planning strategies. Versions of the Learning Cycle are present in the major science curricula today (FOSS, STC, BSCS, etc.) As well as introduced and used as a science lesson planning strategy in most current Science Methods texts. The BSCS approach to the Learning Cycle is credited to Roger Bybee who developed the 5-E model which will be used in the Applications of Research & Model Inquiry Lessons section of EJSE. Bybee's 5-E model is as follows:

The Lesson Plan Format - 5-E Learning Cycle (BSCS / Bybee)

Whether you begin in a very directed or less directed manner will depend on the complexity of the concept and the background of the children. Sometimes you will want to use a hands-on experience to create interest and arouse questions, then lead children into a exploration to develop a concept for which they have some background knowledge. Sometimes, because you feel that children lack the background knowledge, you will begin in a very guided manner to carefully introduce the concept and later, when children have become familiar, move to a more exploratory activity. The direction that you take should come from the decisions that you make during preplanning.

Regardless of the direction that you take, your introduction should engage children, arouse curiosity, and set a direction for the lesson. The children should, by the end of your introduction have an idea about the focus of the lesson and what they will be doing. The introductory activity should also help you reaffirm your thinking about your student's background knowledge and readiness for the experience.

This is the bulk of the lesson where children are immersed in exploration of topics or concepts. This is the primary activity of the lesson. Students work with one another to explore ideas through hands-on activities. The teacher is the facilitator and observes and listens to students as they interact. The teacher asks probing questions of the students so that they clarify their own understanding of major concepts. Additional questions may be asked to redirect students' investigations when necessary. Adequate time for thorough investigation is critical at this time.

This is the meat of the lesson. Here is where you will carefully develop a specific questioning sequence that relates to the new knowledge that you identified as your purpose of the lesson. The sequence of questions in this portion of the lesson is most important. Here is where your knowledge of children development and learning theory really becomes important. This is the place to reflect on stages of learning, moving from concrete to abstract, from the known to the new. You will also want to refer to people who support inquiry and carefully guide children's exploration of a topic or concept while you probe their thinking and provide feedback.

During lesson development you are the one who is responsible for knowing the content well enough that you can flexibly respond to what children do and say during the lesson development. Your knowledge of various ways to teach will be needed to decide if you must revise your lesson plan in midstream. Your knowledge of management will be needed to help you redirect children who do not follow the "group" as you expected, yet need to be engaged for learning. All of these possibilities make teaching complex and often difficult to do well.

Depending upon the time that you have allocated for the lesson and the manner in which the lesson development proceeds, you will eventually need to bring the lesson to closure. If you completed the lesson development as you planned. then closure is really an elaboration of what was done and learned during the lesson. It is most helpful here if students are the ones who verbalize what was learned. It is also appropriate here to move students toward possible applications for what was learned. If the lesson development did not go as planned, then closure may merely be a temporary stopping point, with less elaboration, until you can resume tomorrow.
Learning theorists tell us that it helps us to retain new knowledge if we can link it to what is already known and can chunk it in related pieces. This is the purpose that closure serves. We must help children make "chunks" out of the new information and relate it to what they already know so that the new knowledge can successfully stored, then retrieved at a later time.

Closure is important to retention of information and concepts. It is important, then, to watch the timing of the lesson so that ample time will be reserved for the closure. Remember, you will always have tomorrow. What you try to stuff into children's heads in the fleeting moments of a lesson probably won't be retained anyway. The time would be better spent in a good closure, saving other new information for another lesson.

Evaluation should not wait until the lesson is over. You should be evaluating all along. You will have a sense of how the lesson is proceeding. As you gain experience, you should find it easier to watch the responses of children. In the initial stages it may be difficult for you to do this with much accuracy. But still, you will have a sense of the lesson, which is part of evaluation.

If you planned your lesson to carefully reflect your stated purpose or objective, then evaluation should follow naturally. The type of activities that you plan should allow you to answer the question, "What did children learn about my objective and how did they demonstrate that learning?"

The value of evaluation comes in the closeness of match between your purpose and the activities in which you engage children. One of the most frequent problems that inexperienced teachers have is selecting developmentally appropriate activities that match the proposed objective. This again takes us back to careful preplanning and really knowing what is to be taught and how it might be best learned.

Evaluation of the children's learning should also lead you into evaluating your planning and presentation of the lesson. Here is where objectivity on your part is needed. Every lesson that you teach will not be wonderful and you will need to be objective about your inexperience and what you still need to learn and/or practice. It is hard to move what we know in our heads into our behavior, especially teaching behavior that is so new to us.

Initially, it may be hard for you to be critical of yourself. Perhaps you will need to remind yourself that you are a learner, that you are just beginning, and should not expect that after a few lessons that you will reach perfection. What Lucy Calkins says of writers may also be true for evaluating our teaching, that we should be "passion hot and critic cold." We should revel in what we do well, but we should also be our own critics, striving to find a more informed way to work with children. As we gain experience, we also need to be open to the evaluation of others who have more and varied experiences in teaching.

At the close of a lesson, you should take time to step back and look objectively as you reflect upon your lesson. The reflecting that you will do should help you go back and hear yourself as "teacher," to revisit the lesson as you presented it to inform your evaluation of yourself. One of your goals this semester should be to become a more objective evaluator of yourself.
 

Required Lesson Format:

Introduction
Title and name of designer
Objective and Proficiencies (NSES Standards)
Background knowledge
Teacher
Student
Materials List
Safety procedures

Lesson Body
Engagement
Exploration
Explanation
Elaboration
Evaluation

Closure
Clean-up

All manuscripts and lesson plans should be e-mailed to the editor of EJSE --jcannon@unr.edu

Include the following in your e-mail message to the editor:

a. The author(s) complete name, title, and US mail address.

b. Office phone and FAX number of lead author.

c. Biographical sketch of all authors.

The lead author will be immediately notified of the receipt of the manuscript via e-mail. Upon formal acceptance of the manuscript, a copyright transfer agreement will be e-mailed to you for your signature to be returned to the editor via US mail.

Submitted manuscripts and lesson plans to EJSE are reviewed anonymously by 2-3 international referees. All tracking of manuscripts and reviewers is done by the editor and associate editor. EJSE will not review submissions previously published elsewhere, through print or electronic medium. All attempts will be made to ensure submissions will be reviewed within 14 days of e-mail submission to the editor. Manuscripts will be returned to the lead author when each review is complete.

Accepted manuscripts are electronically published quarterly at this time. The EJSE is not bound or limited to a publishing company or their requirements, therefore allowing a more free exchange of ideas to occur when ready. Although attempts will be made to round out each issue with an appropriate number of articles, some issues may be somewhat larger or smaller.

Each issue will be announced primarily over the Association of Educators of Teachers in Science (AETS), the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), and the EJSE (ejse@unr.edu) listservs. Other l